Chris Matthews to Elizabeth Warren: ‘Give me a date’

MSNBC host Chris Matthews took on Sen. Elizabeth Warren, demanding to know why the Democratic Senate and White House have failed to make progress on infrastructure and other liberal priorities.

Matthews, a liberal commentator, engaged in a testy exchange with the Massachusetts Democrat on his program Thursday evening, saying that the senator has not been able to live up to her rhetoric on passing progressive legislation.

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“I’m telling you, I don’t hear you getting it done,” Matthews said of certain liberal priorities, including bolstering labor rights. “The Democrats control the U.S. Senate. The Democrats control the White House. When are you going to do what you just said you’d like to do? Just when? Give me a date. Is it 2017, 2023?”

“No, it’s now. It’s now,” Warren said as the two talked over each other.

“It isn’t now,” Matthews said.

“Stop this,” Warren said. “We just voted on this last week. You stop and think about it.”

The heated back-and-forth showed a visibly agitated Matthews challenging Warren, the progressive first-term senator who has emerged as a major star among liberal circles. Some Democrats have urged her to run for president in 2016, though she has said many times that she isn’t running.

On Thursday, Warren proceeded to blame congressional Republicans for blocking legislation on education funding, research for the National Institutes of Health and infrastructure and grid projects. In particular, the senator castigated Senate Republicans for shooting down her bill that would allow students to refinance their student loan debt. The bill, the Bank on Students Emergency Loan Refinancing Act, failed to get the 60 votes necessary for consideration on the Senate floor.

“Every time, the Republicans say exactly the same thing,” the senator said, arguing that Democrats are being stymied by the GOP on many of these projects. “They say, oh, there`s just not enough money. There`s just not enough money. There`s just not enough money. And then they say, we are — they are going to fight to protect every tax loophole that currently exists that permits billionaires to pay at a lower tax rate than their secretaries.”

But a visibly agitated Matthews stuck to his criticism of Warren and other Senate Democrats for their failure to pass legislation.

“You’re blaming it on the Republicans, but you control the Senate and you control the White House,” he said.

The host, while calling Warren a “fine senator,” said his priorities were a bit more “blue collar” than hers. He called on the senator to push the White House on infrastructure, in an apparent critique of Obama’s unwillingness to tackle the issue.

“Why don’t you call the president right now and say, ‘Why don’t you do something really big on infrastructure?’ It will grab the public’s imagination. He’s not doing it,” he told Warren.